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JAT Bulletin 187, October 2000. July 16 JAT Kansai Meeting Report. Kansai Activities Committee
On a hot day in July (what day isn't?), a dozen or more
hardy folks trekked to Osaka International House in
Uehonmachi for a translation workshop with David Eunice, a
long-time translator in the Kansai area. We didn't know it
was going to be a hands-on workshop at the start, but it
worked out nicely. The focus was a series of poetic photo
captions for a calendar showing scenes of the Japanese
countryside, particularly rice fields. David had been working
closely with the author, Prof. Kazuko Tomiyama, on both a
book and annual "Rice in Japan"
calendars. David notes that "she writes especially
of the labour of people who created the landscape and scenery
of the countryside and of their descendants who maintain and
recreate it in the annual farming cycle."
In groups of three or four Japanese and non-Japanese we worked on spot translations of an assigned line from each stanza. We did our best in the limited time, and the results were read aloud, written on the whiteboard, and discussed. The exercise was quite interesting, following David's lead. One example of our output was unexpectedly captured in a digital photo (with some gaps) of the whiteboard:
コシヒカリとくだものの里
Home of premium rice and orchards
モモやスモモが一度にさいて
山里の早春の
なんとやさしく華やかだろうか
How gentle and splendid is the early spring of the
mountain village when the peach and plum bloom together.
日本の風景がやさしいのは
草も木も、土のかけらに至るまで
人間が手をかけ、手をかけ、
また手をかけて
いつくしみ育てたものだからだ
Through years of care people have shaped the beautiful
landscape from the plants to the soil.
田植えを待つコシヒカリの畦が
それを語りかけている
This toil can be seen in the... ...await the planting...
Should the title include the word "Koshihikari?" くだもの should be "fruit," no? We discussed and considered the implications of words as befitted the photo, and compared the fruits of our brief efforts with David's finished product:
Land of premium rice and fruitTrees of peach and plum come into bloom together. The early spring in this mountain village has a gentle splendor all of its own. The landscape of Japan is accommodating because, from the trees to the clods of earth, people have shaped it with their hands, and shaped it with their hands, and shaped it with their hands again. This is the story told by a ridge between the paddy fields as it waits to see the planting of Koshihikari rice.
After the meeting most participants went on to a Chinese meal and further informal chatter. For reference, David's translation with parallel Japanese text can be found in this book:
Translating Land of Water and Forest, Japan
富山和子著「水と緑の国、日本」（講談社)
Kazuko Tomiyama, 1998 Kodansha ISBN-06-209380-4
--- Report by Richard Sadowsky